The Aga Khan, who turned the religious chief of thousands and thousands of Ismaili Muslims on the age of 20, has died at his house in Portugal aged 88, surrounded by his household.
As a Harvard undergraduate, he poured a large quantity of his inherited wealth into tithes and constructing houses, hospitals, and colleges in growing international locations, and in doing so, turned liked around the globe and throughout faiths.
His successor, who was chosen as successor in his will by his father, can be learn out within the presence of his household and senior spiritual leaders in Lisbon earlier than the identify is made public. No date has been set for his successor but.
Thought of by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a scholar when his grandfather skipped a era, over his playboy father as successor to steer the diaspora of Shia Ismaili Muslims, saying his followers must be led by a younger man ‘who has been introduced up within the midst of the brand new age.’
Aga Khan – western enterprise magnate and philanthropist
Over a long time, the Aga Khan advanced right into a enterprise magnate and a philanthropist, shifting between the religious and the worldly and mixing them naturally.
Handled like a head of state, the Aga Khan was given the title of ‘His Highness’ by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather, the Aga Khan III, unexpectedly made him inheritor to the household’s 1,300-year dynasty as chief of the Ismaili Muslim sect.
He turned the Aga Khan IV in 1957, in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, on the spot the place his grandfather as soon as had his weight equalled in diamonds in items from his followers.
A defender of Islamic tradition and values, he was broadly considered a builder of bridges between the array of Muslim communities and the West regardless of his distaste for politics.
Averse to scandal, Aga Khan dragged into political scandal
In 2017, he discovered himself amidst a global political scandal when Justin Trudeau was strongly criticised for accepting an invite from the Aga Khan for accepting what most thought-about a ‘free vacation’ on the Aga Khan’s non-public residence within the Bahamas.
He poured cash into constructing new hospitals within the third world the place there had by no means been one earlier than.
A community of hospitals bearing his identify is scattered in locations the place well being care had lacked for the poorest, together with Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the place he spent tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the event of native economies.
His eye for constructing and design led him to determine an structure prize, and packages for Islamic Structure at MIT and Harvard. He restored historic Islamic constructions all through the world.
The extent of the Aga Khan’s monetary empire is difficult to measure. Some experiences estimated his private wealth to be within the billions.